Meet the Hudhud

The logo of the KNOW project, designed by the Egyptian designer Ahmad Soliman, draws on the figure of the hudhud (hoopoe), the bird that appears in the Qur’anic account of the prophet Sulaymān (Solomon). In the Qur’an, the hudhud is not simply a messenger, but a seeker of knowledge who crosses boundaries and returns with insight unavailable even to the royal court itself. Venturing beyond the limits of the known world, the bird discovers distant communities, unfamiliar forms of worship, and hidden truths. Its journey is marked by curiosity, risk, and the courage to move beyond familiar forms of knowledge.

The Arabic calligraphic element on which the hudhud rests is formed from the words اعلم أن (“Know that…”), a recurring Qur’anic formula that later became a familiar feature of Arabic scholarly writing as a way of introducing important insights, arguments, and new lines of thought. On its journey, the hudhud comes to rest upon a branch of knowledge rendered in a flowing Nastaʿlīq-inspired hand associated with the interconnected scholarly traditions of the Islamic world.

The project’s typeface, El Messiri, further deepens this symbolism. Designed by Mohamed Gaber, the font combines readability with a flowing, expansive aesthetic inspired by classical Arabic calligraphy while remaining distinctly modern. Its name evokes the Egyptian intellectual ʿAbd al-Wahhāb al-Masīrī (1938–2008), whose work challenged inherited categories of thought and encouraged critical reflection on how systems of knowledge are formed, ordered, and normalised. Elmessiri’s wide-ranging scholarship, crossing literature, philosophy, religion, modernity, and cultural criticism, exemplified an intellectual practice that resisted confinement within rigid disciplinary borders.